A trivia game seems like a shoo-in for a great wireless game. After all, it doesn’t require much technology to pull off, it’s not too fast paced, and it’s something that can be played in small doses or large chunks. However, BuzzTime Trivia also lays a few eggs that definitely lessen its appeal. It makes up for this in mainstream appeal that will get both you and your grandmother to play a few games.

BuzzTime has two game types — BuzzTime Trivia and BuzzTime Light. Both let you pick between three categories of questions (a general category called Everything, Sports, and Entertainment). Each round consists of 15 multiple-choice questions, consisting of five potential answers. The point value for a correct answer goes down as the timer ticks away. Between questions, you get to see your standing against the others playing the same round. At times, I was playing with myself (no, not like that, sicko), but other times there were upwards of 15 competitors duking it out for the trivia throne.

A winner is you!

After a few plays, I avoided the seemingly regular mode like the plague. You see, Buzztime Trivia mode offers you three hints as time goes down. These are very obvious ones, basically taking away two possibilities with the first two hints, and giving you the answer in the third. This is a buzzkill, because you can almost always get the correct answer. Because you can change answers until the timer goes down, you can make your first choice, then pick an alternate if you find out it’s wrong. Also, the hints take up space on the screen, meaning you have to scroll down to see the fifth possible answer (at least on the LG camera phone I was using).

The categories are nicely varied. I must admit I was basically owned on Entertainment, as the questions skew to an older audiences — lots of 1950s and 60s questions. Likewise, sports requires you to have a broad knowledge of everything team/ball/jockstrap-related. Of course, this isn’t Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?, so you don’t have to get every question right to win the competition. The Everything category is a nice cross-section of general knowledge, from “What airline went belly-up in 1991?” to “What is the common term for Scrivener’s Palsy?”

I like the fun facts that are shown after the answer is revealed. There are definitely worse ways to meet your “learn something new everyday” quota. Some stat-tracking or picture-related questions would be nice, and I miss the ability to talk trash that is present in taverns and free online games, but BuzzTime Trivia is still a decent way to do multiplayer trivia in mobile phones. Besides, you could use some schooling up.